ORNITHOLOGY. 



595 



Seansores. shaped at the extremity, and admirably fitted for splitting 

 v -— v— ~ the bark or excavating the decayed portions of trees. The 

 tongue is long, and capable of great protrusion, in conse- 

 quence of its muscular basis, and the length of the horns 

 of the os hyoides. It is not only furnished with little spines 

 pointing backwards, but .is covered by a glutinous mois- 

 ture secreted by the salivary glands, which aids in the 

 capture of the smaller insects, the larger, it is said, being 

 usually transfixed by the point itself. The tail-feathers 

 are very stiff and elastic, and greatly aid the motion of the 

 feet in climbing, being pressed upon the bark, so as in some 

 measure to support the body. Woodpeckers are shy and 

 solitary birds. During the breeding season they dwell in 

 pairs, and are only met with in small family flocks through- 

 out the autumn. With the exception of the parrots, they 

 form the most extensive group among scansorial tribes, 

 between one and two hundred species being known to na- 

 turalists. We have only four in Britain, viz. the green 

 woodpecker (P. viridis), our most common species ; the 

 great black woodpecker (P. martius), which is a much 

 rarer bird ; the great spotted woodpecker (P. major) ; and 

 the lesser spotted kind (P. minor). Besides these, several 

 others occur on the continent of Europe. 



In whatever clime or country woodpeckers are found, 

 they are characterized by strong affinities of form and co- 

 lour, and constitute a very natural group, although some 

 slight modifications of the bill have given rise in recent 

 times to the formation of a few subgenera. 



Buffon has drawn a melting picture of the miseries of a 

 woodpecker's life. According to the views of the always 

 eloquent, but frequently erroneous and sometimes incon- 

 sistent Frenchman, no bird which earns its subsistence by 

 spoil leads a life of such painful and uninterrupted labour. 

 Nature appears to have condemned it to incessant toil, — 

 for while other species freely employ their courage or ad- 

 dress, and either glide along on fearless rapid wings, or 

 lurk insidiously in closer ambush, the woodpecker is con- 

 strained to drag on a miserable existence in boring through 

 the scaly bark and tough unyielding fibres of the hardest 

 trees. Necessity admits no intermission of its labours, — 

 no interval of sweet repose. Not even the darkness of the 

 night, nor sleep, that " soft restorer," who throws her 

 balmy mantle over such a mass of human misery, brings 

 any solace here, — for the nocturnal hours are spent in the 

 same constrained and painful posture as are those of day. 

 It never shares in the joyous sports of the other inhabi- 

 tants of the woods, and so far from joining in their glad re- 

 sponses, it rather deepens the natural sadness of the forest 

 glades by its wild and melancholy cries. Now, what is 

 all this but the most fantastic coinage of the brain ? — as if 

 the blessed beings which people this gladsome world en- 

 dured the primal curse, and shared the self-inflicted ruin 

 of our race ! as if their joyful hearts were ever pressed by 

 sorrow, or responded in wailing sadness to the woes of 

 man ! Spirit of Eblis ! not yet has thy malign influence 

 so encroached upon the " Benigner Power." Is there any 

 thing on earth for which we may not cry alas ! saving only 

 the omnipotent goodness of God, who careth " for all his 

 creatures," — and amid the unmeasured wretchednesswhich 

 springs from human folly, the wan faces of our fellow-men 

 pent up in close-built cities, the drunkard's hollow eyes, his 

 shaking limbs, and tattered garments (and all the horrid 

 ills that vice is heir to), what is more inspiring than to see 

 even a fragment of the face of nature, — some little open 

 plot of garden ground, where in spring the blackbird still 

 may sing his evening hymn, or the autumnal red-breast 

 cheerily announce approaching winter ? Is there sorrow 

 there or suffering, save what may spring from some dark 

 spirit in the mind of man, the " immortal rebel ?" When 

 Buffon himself, a great interpreter of nature, in spite of 

 all his fitful fancies, yielded up his life to God who gave 



it, did the lilied fields of France reflect the sun's warm Seansores. 

 rays less brightly, or her sylvan choristers welcome with "~-"-v— -' 

 sadder note the rosy day-break of the ensuing morn, ; or 

 when that more wretched hour arrived (which the hoarv 

 but irreverent parent was saved the pain to see) when his 

 son's fair locks, dishevelled but not dishonoured, were 

 streaming on the blood-stained floor of that insatiate scaf- 

 fold, what cared the gladsome birds in field or tree ? It 

 would indeed be but a doleful thought, if misery such as 

 man so often meets with among human kind, and which he 

 is therefore prone to picture, were to spread itself from 

 his own sad bosom into the depth of darkly shaded forests, 

 where so many gorgeous feathered inmates dwell, or among 

 ocean rocks amid upheaving waters, or wave-worn caves, 

 or crystal rivers with their golden sands. 



Let those who dwell with pity on the fate of our condemned 

 bird go with us to America, and listen to the high-toned note 

 of Picus principalis (the name itself might " threaten and 

 command"), echoing from the giant trunk or moss-grown 

 arm of some colossal tree, or watch his varied movements, 

 while from gnarled stems he drives off impetuously broad 

 flakes of flashing bark, which so accumulate around the base 

 of pine or cypress, as if a human carpenter had there set up 

 his habitation. Or if we cannot go to America, let us read 

 a great observer's history of another species. " No sooner," 

 says Audubon, " has spring called them (the golden-winged 

 woodpeckers) to the pleasant duty of making love, than 

 their voice, which by the way is not at all disagreeable 

 to the ear of man, is heard from the tops of high decayed 

 trees, proclaiming with delight the opening of the welcome 

 season. Their note at this period is merriment itself, as 

 it imitates a prolonged and jovial laugh, heard at a con- 

 siderable distance. Several males pursue a female, reach 

 her, and to prove the force and truth of their love, bow 

 their heads, spread their tails, and move sideways, back- 

 wards and forwards, performing such antics as might in- 

 duce any one witnessing them, if not of a most morose 

 temper, to join his laugh to theirs. The female flies to 

 another tree, where she is constantly followed by one, two, 

 or even half a dozen of these gay suitors, and where again 

 the same ceremonies are gone through. No fightings oc- 

 cur, no jealousies exist among these beaux, until a marked 

 preference is shown to some individual ; when the reject- 

 ed proceed in search of another female. In this manner all 

 the golden-winged woodpeckers are soon happily mated. 

 Each pair immediately proceed to excavate the trunk of a 

 tree, and finish a hole in it sufficient to contain themselves 

 and their young. They both work with great industry and 

 apparent pleasure. Should the male, for instance, be em- 

 ployed, the female is close to him, and congratulates him 

 on the removal of every chip which his bill sends through 

 the air. While he rests he appears to be speaking to her 

 on the most tender subjects, and when fatigued is at once 

 assisted by her. In this manner, by the alternate exer- 

 tions of each, the hole is dug and finished. They caress 

 each other on the branches, climb about and around the tree 

 with apparent delight, rattle with their bill against the tops 

 of the dead branches, chase all their cousins the red-heads, 

 defy the purple-grakles to enter their nest, feed plentifully 

 on ants, beetles, and larvae, cackling at intervals, and ere 

 two weeks have elapsed, the female lays either four or six 

 eggs, the whiteness or transparency of which are doubtless 

 the delight of her heart. If to raise a numerous progeny 

 may contribute to happiness, these woodpeckers may be 

 happy enough, for they have two broods each season. 

 Even in confinement the golden-winged woodpecker never 

 suffers its naturally lively spirit to droop. It feeds well, 

 and by way of amusement will contrive to destroy as much 

 furniture in a day as can well be mended by a different 

 kind of workman in two. Therefore, kind reader, do not 

 any longer believe that woodpeckers, I mean those of 



